The Crew wrapped up a spasmodic 2013 season with a 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution in
Crew Stadium yesterday afternoon. A crowd of 17,505 witnessed what was a meaningless game for the
home team.

The fans were there, in force, to enjoy convivial company before winter takes grip. They were
there to ponder the future.

Midfielder Eddie Gaven, who had season-ending knee surgery, will be back next year. So will
Glauber, a defender. The one is a critical piece, the other an important one.

And there is a coach to hire.

For all practical purposes, there has been a coach to hire for many months, maybe even years.
But the process was delayed.

It is likely the Hunt family would have acted to remove Robert Warzycha in midsummer were they
not in the process of selling the franchise. True, the Hunts were traditionally dilatory in such
duties. Still, it is hard to imagine them keeping Warzycha beyond the unfathomably garish 2-1 loss
in Toronto on July 27.

Three days later, they announced that they had sold the team to Anthony Precourt, who took stock
for a month before he took action. Warzycha was fired on Sept. 2. At that point, the Crew was in a
3-6-2 funk and was eight points out of the last playoff spot.

By then, it was virtually assured that the Crew would miss the playoffs for the second year in a
row. Interim coach Brian Bliss deserves credit for restoring order, ratcheting up accountability
and keeping the team in the playoff hunt, mathematically, until the penultimate game. Under him,
the Crew was 4-4.

Bliss the other day described his primary job as “changing the mentality” of how the team
approaches each task, each training session, each game. He accomplished this.

Warzycha lost these players. Bliss got them back.

“I know how I feel the game should be played and what to do in training to get to that level,”
Bliss said during his postgame confab yesterday, as Precourt watched from the back of the room. “I
think I got us on the right track.”

Bliss is one of at least six finalists for the coaching job. He would be a safe pick. He is the
team’s technical director and is most familiar with its personnel, up and down the system. He has
the most informed opinion of the Crew’s needs. He also has a healthy, tempered view of what the
front office might be willing to do. He used to work for the Hunts.

The Crew is not all that far away from rejoining the higher echelon of MLS. Its most glaring
needs — an effective left back and another scorer — are classic ones. Everyone needs a good left
back. Everyone needs scoring. By all indications, Precourt is not quite ready to add another
designated player, but that does not mean he cannot upgrade.

Cap space will be cleared, the roster will get a minor retool and the team will get a new coach.
It is a chance to refresh.

I would not mind seeing Bliss get the job. I would suspect that if the Crew were going to hire
him, they would do it quickly. Why wait if he’s the man? If he is not, then he is a fallback
option, and the process will continue for a few days or weeks. There have been different parameters
assigned to the timing of the hiring. Basically, it can come anytime between this morning and
mid-November.

The field is an interesting one. The fan favorite is the incomparable Guillermo Barros
Schelotto, former Crew, MLS and MLS Cup MVP. Schelotto is coaching the Argentine club Lanus at the
moment. Are there buyout issues? Are there language issues?

Sigi Schmid, who delivered the MLS Cup to Columbus in 2008, might be one Seattle loss away from
being available. Just saying.

Frank Yallop and Jesse Marsh, one would expect, are front-runners. Yallop has coached nearly 400
MLS games with San Jose and the Los Angeles Galaxy, and he won two MLS Cups with the Earthquakes.
Marsh played 14 years in the league and, despite his odd parting after a year coaching the Montreal
Impact, is seen as an up-and-coming talent.

There is opportunity here, and you could feel it in Crew Stadium yesterday. The Revolution
needed a victory to augment its playoff position, so it scored a goal, sat back in its own end and
killed the rest of the game. Yet, the atmosphere was upbeat, if not buoyant.

There is a new owner in town, and he was on the premises. A new coach is coming. The feeling is
better than it was a year ago, that is for sure.